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Australian Law
The most comprehensive site for legislation
is the Australasian Legal Information Institute
(AustLII). It also has a reasonably friendly user interface. However,
it does not cover all legislation and does not always provide current
information. It is therefore necessary to check with the various Commonwealth,
State and Territory sites (listed below) for legislation not found on
AustLII.
ComLaw
and its predecessor SCALEplus
are the most comprehensive sites for federal legislation and are usually
more current than AustLII. LAWLEX Provides a Subject Index of Legislation
from all jurisdictions
- Bills and Explanatory Memoranda
- Billsnet
– on the Parliament site. Mainly from 1997 onwards with
a few from 1996. Note that current bills are in a separate file
from old bills. Texts of bills, with links to related documents
(Explanatory Memorandums, Bills Digests, Second Reading Speeches;
Proposed Amendments)
- ComLaw
(1996+). Select "Attachments" under the name of each Bill
to see the EM
- Australian
Taxation Office Legal Database: Extrinsic Materials
Explanatory Memoranda and Second Reading speeches for tax bills
from 1936+
- Index
to Explanatory Memoranda 1901-1982
A list compiled by the Parliamentary Library showing which bills
were accompanied by an EM. Not all bills had EMs before 1982
- Senate
Bills and Explanatory Memorandums
A trial database of items tabled in the Senate. Will eventually
cover all bills since 1901. Select "Bill" and its subdivisions
in the "Description" pull down box. Note that the database
is not very user friendly and you should read the "Tips on
Searching" before starting. There is no browse facility
- Acts
- ComLaw
The most current and comprehensive site for Commonwealth Acts. If
the Act you want is not here, try browsing the numbered
Acts (ie Acts as originally passed)
- AustLII
- Documenting
a Democracy. This National Archives site has the text of a small
number of key acts as they were originally passed: Pacific Islands
Labourers Act 1901; Immigration Restriction Act 1901; Commonwealth
Franchise Act 1902, Judiciary Act 1903; Seat of Government Acceptance
Act 1909; Commonwealth Electoral Act 1924; Statute of Westminster
Adoption Act 1942; Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948; Flags Act
1953; Royal Style and Titles Act 1953
- Federal
Statutes Annotations
All principal Acts for the Commonwealth are listed with: assent
and reprint information; the current state of the Act, such as repeal
or change of name; amending Acts with relevant commencement information;
related Acts; regulations made under the Act; and relevant books
and articles. [Through Butterworths Online and available by subscription
to Parliament only]
- ComLaw
Legislation Tables
Contains: Acts Table 1901+ (an alphabetical and chronological consolidated
list of all Acts passed and how affected by later legislation. Very
useful for historical research); annual Acts Tables 1993+; Repealed
Acts Tables 1995+
- Commencement Dates for Acts
Each Act usually provides for how it will come into force eg the
day after Royal Assent. If the date of commencement is to be done
by Proclamation this is notified as a Legislative Instrument on
FRLI (see below), or before 2005 notified in the Government Gazette.
From 2005 each Act as passed on ComLaw provides details of any commencement
proclamations (usually in section 2), while each compilation of
an Act provides commencement information for the principal and amending
acts in a table in the Notes to the act. Commencement information
may also be available in Federal Statutes Annotations and ComLaw
legislation tables mentioned above. The Legislation
Index of the Supreme Court of Victoria Library provides commencement
information for Commonwealth acts since 1991. The Office of Parliamentary
Counsel provides background to commencement provisions in its Drafting
Direction no. 1.3
- Delegated Legislation (Legislative Instruments, Statutory Rules,
Regulations etc)
- Letters Patent
- Model
Laws published by the Standing Committee of Attorneys General
(SCAG)
- ACT Legislation Register
Launched in September 2001, the Register aims to provide access to the
full text of Bills, Acts as passed, consolidated Acts and Subordinate
Legislation
- ACT Legislation
– from AustLII
- Victorian Legislation
– via Dept of the Premier and Cabinet. This is the most comprehensive
site for Victorian legislation. Includes Bills from 1996 and Explanatory
Memoranda from Autumn 2001 (select "Archive"
on the Parliamentary Documents page for old Bills and EMs).
- Victorian
Legislation – via AustLII. Not very comprehensive- some Acts
are missing
- Indexes
to Victorian legislation - from the Office of the Chief Parliamentary
Counsel, Department of Premier and Cabinet
- Non self-governing territories legislation is available on ComLaw.
Select Legislative Instruments Compilations>NSGT instruments [Name
of Territory]
- Norfolk Island
Select "Legislation" for reprinted and numbered Acts and Regulations
as well as legislation tables
Many current Commonwealth, State and Territory court and tribunal decisions
are published on AustLII. Courts which
publish their own decisions or summaries of cases pending are listed at
the Foundation
Law judgments page
- Attorney-General's Department
- Australian and New
Zealand Law and History Society
- Australian and New Zealand Sports
Law Association
- Australian Federal Police
- Australian Government Solicitor
- Australian Law Online (formerly
Window on the Law (WOTL))
Commonwealth legal information, including an overview of Australia's
legal system (Attorney-General's Department)
- Australian Law Reform Commission
- AustLII
Australasian Legal Information Institute. Provides access to Commonwealth,
State and Territory legislation, court decisions and other legal materials,
including links to other Australian and overseas law sites
- Butterworths Publishers (see LexisNexis)
- CCH law and tax publishers
- Citation style
guide
A guide to citing legal materials written by the University of Melbourne
School of Law
- Council of Australian Governments
(COAG)
- Federal Court of Australia
- Federal Magistrates Court
- Francis Forbes Society
for Australian Legal History
- High Court of Australia
- International
Legal Services Advisory Council
A part-time advisory council to the government with the function of
improving Australia's international performance in the legal and related
areas
- JURIST Australia
The Law Professors' Network. Part of a worldwide network of JURIST Web
Sites
- Law Book Co (see Thomson Legal and Regulatory)
- Law Council of Australia
The national organisation representing the legal profession. Includes
texts of its media releases on current legal issues and its newsletter
Australian lawyer. Provides links to State and Territory law
societies
- Law Journals
Links to the home pages of various law journals. Subscription details,
contents pages and even the odd full text article may be found here
- The
Law Report
Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio National. Transcripts and
summaries of a weekly programme devoted to current legal issues
- LexisNexis
(Law publisher, formerly Butterworths)
Includes Legal Express (a daily legal news service), Halsburys
laws of Australia etc, the full text of which are available through
the Parliamentary Library's LexisNexis.AU online service. Parliamentary
staff should click on : "Sign on to LexisNexis.AU" at left
of main screen in order to access subscription services
- Ministerial
Council on the Administration of Justice
- Standing Committee of Attorneys
General (SCAG)
The Ministerial Council of Commonwealth, State, Territory and New Zealand
attorneys-general. SCAG meets regularly to discuss legal matters of
national interest and uniformity of laws
- Thomson Legal
and Regulatory (Law publisher, formerly Law Book Co)
- Weblaw: a co-operative web legal
indexing project
Australian Capital Territory
New South Wales
Northern Territory
Queensland
South Australia
Tasmania
Victoria
Western Australia
- Researching
Australian law (N. Pengelley)
An excellent essay providing a structured approach to legal research
on the Internet
- A Short
guide to Australian legal research (Research One)
- Halsburys
laws of Australia (LexisNexis)
A major law encyclopedia and a good starting point for most legal research.
A commercial publication and not available outside Parliament without
a subscription
- The
Laws of Australia (Law Book Co)
A major law encyclopedia and a good starting point for most legal research.
A commercial publication and not available outside Parliament without
a subscription
- LexisNexis.AU online
research publications
Includes Australian Current Law (monthly summaries of new cases and
legislation); statutes annotations for the Commonwealth and some States;
and legal dictionaries. A commercial publication and not available outside
Parliament without a subscription
- LawBook
Online
Research publications from Law Book Co (Australian Digest, Australian
Legal Monthly Digest, Commonwealth Law Reports, Laws of Australia etc).
A commercial publication and not available outside Parliament without
a subscription
-
Legal research guides on the Internet (A WEBLAW research guide)
- AussieLegal
(outlines of over 120 different areas of the law - a good starting point
for basic legal information. However not all States and Territories
are covered)
- Abbreviations
of legal publications (Monash University Library)
Excellent guide to abbreviations of law reports and law journals
- Books on legal research. These provide a more thorough overview of
legal research tools. To verify the latest edition see the National
Library catalogue. For Parliamentary Library holdings see
the Library catalogue.
- Online research only: Law on the internet (C. Banks,
H. Douglas); E-law research: your guide to electronic legal
research (S. Dayal)
- Online and print sources: Concise legal research (R.
Watt); Effective legal research (I. Nemes, G.Coss.); Laying
down the law (C. Cook et al); Legal research: materials
and methods (Campbell, E.); Legal
technique (C. Enright); Researching and writing in
law (T. Hutchinson)
These are websites, usually of individual lawyers, providing opinions on
current legal issues. They are usually very current, being updated on a
very regular basis. Individual blogs sometimes provide links to other blogs.
Comments to:
roy.jordan@aph.gov.au
Last reviewed
31 July, 2008
by the Parliamentary Library Web Manager
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